Chapter 9
Qin Zheng intended to make me his next Empress.
I had only just entered the palace, had little standing, and was the deposed Empress’s own sister. Court and harem alike opposed the decision.
Qin Zheng refused to yield.
He spent every night in my chambers, staring at my flushed face and murmuring, “We will not give up. This position was always meant to be yours.”
I was exhausted and had no idea what he meant. I turned away and went to sleep.
I nearly never woke from that sleep.
When I opened my eyes again, three days had passed.
Qin Zheng held my hand and released a long breath. His eyes were threaded with red.
The imperial physician told me I had been poisoned. The culprit had already been found: Noble Consort Liu.
Her family and rank both surpassed mine. She had assumed that once the Empress fell, the throne of the harem would belong to her. Instead, Qin Zheng defied his ministers to make me Empress.
In desperation, she resorted to a clumsy scheme. She tried to kill me and remove the threat forever.
I leaned against Qin Zheng and spoke softly. “Disaster follows those whose virtue is unworthy of their station.”
“Please choose another Empress and move me to West Wind Court, far from the struggles of the harem.”
After a long silence, Qin Zheng agreed.
He stopped speaking of appointing a new Empress and entrusted the harem’s affairs to Noble Consort Chun. I withdrew to West Wind Court and found my peace.
It stood at the farthest edge of the Six Palaces, beside the quarters where officials slept when duty kept them overnight in the palace. Officials could often be seen passing along the road outside its gate.
Qin Zheng never paid attention to such details.
Whenever he visited, he found me carefully dressed and waiting at the entrance.
He always smiled. “Has Our beloved consort been waiting for Us?”
I smiled with him and said nothing.
Then drought struck the northwest. Qin Zheng left the palace for three days to pray for rain at the Altar of Heaven.
Just as in my previous life, a violent wind rose that night and rain poured from the sky.
Someone tore the roof from West Wind Court.
The place was so remote that no one knew. Soaked from head to toe, I could only knock on the nearest official residence.
“My lord… may I shelter here from the rain?”
I remained Qin Zheng’s favored consort for three years and bore him a son and a daughter.
The children were beautiful and clever, yet when he looked at them, Qin Zheng showed little delight.
“We still think the child from our previous life was better…”
I interrupted him with a faint smile. “Your Majesty forgets that I never met that child.”
Qin Zheng fell silent.
From that day on, he never mentioned our former life again. He devoted himself to our two children.
I returned to Zhongcui Palace. Three years later, I was elevated to Imperial Noble Consort.
The entire harem came under my control.
Qin Zheng’s health gradually declined.
“We were perfectly healthy in our last life,” he lamented. “Why should this body fail after being granted another?”
I wound my arms around his neck and soothed him. “Perhaps it is Heaven’s will.”
“Consider this life a dream granted by the immortals, so we might mend our regrets. You and I have found our way back to each other, our love is deep, and our children are growing up healthy. What more could we ask?”
My words moved him.
He stopped taking medicine and refused to let the imperial physicians examine him. Instead, he moved into the prayer hall and devoted himself to spiritual cultivation.
He said he wished to atone for his sins and earn another life.
Watching the piety on his face, I almost laughed.
For whom was he atoning?
Certainly not me.
By the following spring, Qin Zheng’s body could no longer endure.
He summoned me, took my hand, and looked up from a face wasted to bone.
“Wanning… does it please you to see Us like this?”
I was silent for a moment. “You knew long ago that I was secretly poisoning you. Why did you allow yourself to become this ill?”
His expression was half smile, half sigh. “If keeping you beside Us meant this would happen sooner or later, so be it.”
“We wronged you in our last life. You have taken your revenge in this one. The debt between us is settled.”
He tightened his grip on my hand. “Die with Us, and in the next life we can love each other with clean hearts. Will you?”
No.
I stroked his face tenderly. “Wait for me below, Your Majesty. When I have lived enough, I will naturally come find you.”
He seemed to have expected my answer.
“We left a secret decree with Wei Zhe. Only if you follow Us in death will Hong’er inherit the throne. Otherwise, Wei Zhe will support another prince.”
“Wei Zhe will make Hong’er Emperor.”
Qin Zheng’s gaze locked on mine.
After a long time, he asked in a trembling voice, “Why?”
I smiled.
“No man would refuse to support his own flesh and blood.”